A 4-day holiday weekend here in NZ, spring is sprung, so I did a little spring maintenance on my 4 speed Raleigh, plus swapped a brown B66 for a black Flyer Special on my old BSA, and it looks much better. Goes better, too, with the narrow saddle.

Here are the pics. They could have gone in the 'What are you wrenching?' or 'White tyres' threads, but this is the thread that never dies ..

The Raleigh had decaying but nice Michelins on it, so I bought some Cheng Shins. I quite like the grey, but the quality is not special. They don't quite fit right, so both front and rear have a bit of a flat spot because I don't think the inner diameter is quite right for the stainless Dunlop rims. I deflated and fettled and re-inflated but I cannot eliminate the problem. I would have gone for Delta Cruisers but the NZ agent is apparently hopeless, and about to be replaced by an equally-hopeless new agent, so laments my bike shop guy. the deltas are unavailable.
The sharp-eyed amongst you will also have spotted salmon Koolstops on front and grey on rear. I rang the NZ agent, and he had these as samples and gave them to me! Now that is generous, thank you Mr Philips in Christchurch.
And they are so much better than the generic rubbish I bought in the UK 6 months ago.
My little tyre swap turned into a 2 hour effort in the beating sun, as I took the opportunity to put on a new chain, no small task with a full chain case as many of you will know. It is almost a 2-man job. Anyway, back in the UK I had swapped the rear 18 tooth sprocket for a 21 to improve low ratios for slow rides with the kids, but this pulled the rear wheel too far forward in the dropouts to the point where the chaincase didn't fit properly, so I put in a new chain, 106 links instead of 102, and now the wheel sits more centrally in the rear mudguard, and the chaincase is back to its happy self.
But the 4 speed hub had me flummoxed.
With the bike upside down I foolishly tried to fit the 2 piece indicator on the wrong way. This despite me being a surgeon and being used to thinking which side is which etc, on a daily basis. But in terms of an operation, I had done the hard part, which was the chain swap, so I had got complacent, so cocked this bit up. The 2-part indicator chain wouldn't screw together in the middle of the hub, and when I realised I had it the wrong way around, I sorted it. Then, when back together, it wouldn't engage 4th gear, only 1-2-3. It freewheeled in 4th. So I oiled the hub again and rode around, to no avail. Then I removed the indicator, put it back and now it's all fine! So buggered if I know what gremlin was messing with me.
While I had the wheels off I took the chance to rub 30W Briggs and Stratton mower oil into the slightly rusting inside surface of the mudguards, so hopefully they'll last another 55 years (more than I will).
These bikes are becoming workaday heirlooms. Look out kids, the oldies are going to foist them upon you..

The BSA is going nicely. I oiled the brake and it actually works a little bit now.
I went to a short blast last night, and basing the distance on the fairly accurate mileometer, I averaged 15mph. Not bad for an old bike and an unfit rider.

I am wondering what to do with the BSA. My original plan was to keep developing it as a Pathracer replica. But I have many good bits I collected in the UK, and I am planning another bike.
I think I will turn the BSA back into what it is, a tourer, with the oddity of the 3 speed Sachs Dreigang hub brake that came with it, complete with top-tube gear lever. I will have the silver-sprayed stem properly plated.
I am planning getting a custom lugged frame made in pathracer style with high bottom bracket and no drillings for mudguards, etc. It will probably be dark blue, and have nickel-plated forks, +/- lugs if the frame maker can do that. It will have 28" rims and cream Deltas, and Sturmey hub brakes.I have a Major Taylor stem on an old bicycle which needs nickel-plating.

It should be fun. Any other ideas gratefully considered...

PS - in a momentous piece of cycling trivia, I can now tell you that a Sturmey FG dynohub, Dunlop stainless rim and 40 beautiful stainless spokes with brass bits weighs 3.4 kg, and with tyre and tube, 4 kg.
How much do those carbon thingies weigh?

30 w oil is fine. Chances are there is too much oil in the hub, good news is that if finds it's way out by itself. IMO I'd ride it for a while, the clicking and smooth shifting will return. My experience has been: If shifting from 1st to 2nd or 2nd to 3rd hangs up, it is more likely the cable, or the indicator chain, make sure they move freely. You can watch to see if the chain moves smoothly into the hub. If the hang up is from 3rd to 2nd or 2nd to 1st than it might be something within the hub.

It's shifting fine now...I think you were right about too much oil. Another poster mentioned the dirt and grime that adding the oil may have caused, too. It seems like a decent amount of riding and it will be clean and clicking. Thanks for your responses!

I never noticed how crooked the pictures were before I made them black and white. I have the ability to print on canvas, that might be cool. The sloppier image would be good for screen printing, I have a simple single frame somewhere. I might dig it out and attempt to make a t-shirt, I haven't done that since high school.

I remember doing the same thing in high school art class! I wonder what the hell I printed? I don't remember. It wasn't as cool as this. Sign me up, if you do make them, to buy one.

I agree. I based a lot of what I did to my Sports on what she had done to hers. Must admit, turns out I don't love the Delta Cruisers as much as she does. I think my bike looked just as sweet with the more narrow Kenda gumwalls that were rotting off it when I bought it. Next time, I'll go back to a narrower tire on that bike, because it handles much more swiftly. That said, she got my mind rolling on all this fixin' up of vintage bikes, and I learned a ton about what options are out there from reading her blog. Guess I now finally know enough to make some minor decisions about things on my own! I think Veloria has a particular aesthetic, too, that isn't for everyone. I like it, though .

Just thought I'd put this snap of my wife's commuter which I borrowed for Tuesday's run. It appears to be an 80's Sports but with a "Free Spirit" label because it has identical everything to my 80's "Raleigh Sports" right down to the paint colour and scheme. Both claim to be "made in Canuckistan" so perhaps they don't fit this thread's stringent criteria... But both have AWs. I put the 24t cog on the back but it's still simply too high geared for 2-4" [+drifts] of Oktober cement. I wonder if reefing on the pedals is what bends the seat tube on Ladies frames? LBS says there are no bigger cogs, so I'm tempted to seek a smaller chainring. It sure would be nice to have carbide studs in a 26x1&3/8. But it is amazing how well you can do with virtually treadless tyres. I realized that the way to mount a waggon hitch on one of these things is to ignore the axle and bolt up to the frame there.

We both like this stem. It's the tallest LBS offers 10" up and 4" out and really takes pressure off if you have any hand or wrist troubles. I find it quiet pleasant to sit vertical too.

Thanx - discovered them all lonely on the shelf at the Loblaws. They're quite light as there's no steel frame - straight willow. I bought 4 intending to do panniers front and rear on my main bike, but now my bike collection has mushroomed and there's 4 bikes each with one on the back, just poked 4 zipstrips through their weave and done. They sure are handy this time of year when piles of clothes are coming off and on all the time :-) And they don't put much cargo space in back of these waggons.

Yes, it's 2n1. One was a frame set with chainring, other was a rust bucket that had been in a bamboo patch for years. Used a inner sleeve to join seatposts and steertubes, and spliced the seat stays to length. I did the measuring and cutting, a friend TIG welded them. The headtube was replaced (braized in) with a longer piece of Raleigh tubing. Sandblasted and rattle canned black. The chaincase and rims are Chinese, I reused both the AW and the Phillips front hubs. Bottom bracket has a threaded oiler, as do both hubs. Most of the rod brake bits are original, a few are chinese. By the way, it seems Flying Pigeon (Mao's peoples bicycle) is a copy of a Phillips, NOT a Raleigh. I looked for a big frame Roadster for a couple of years out here in Oregon with no luck .Finding and shipping one from back east was $$$. I've got around $400 in it and I'm enjoying riding it, except in the wet. In process of building a winter wheelset with drum brakes, rod brake linkage activated of course. Tim ps A year ago when I asked about making the frame taller, most of the responses were polite, a few were rude, some were helpful.

Inspired by the recent Raleigh lamp thread I found a NOS one on ebay.uk. Thanks to RHM for the suggestion of searching "Pifco". It takes an obsolete battery so I had to rig my own battery pack from instructions I found online. It works!

[QUOTE=mkeller234;11704827]Inspired by the recent Raleigh lamp thread I found a NOS one on ebay.uk. Thanks to RHM for the suggestion of searching "Pifco". It takes an obsolete battery so I had to rig my own battery pack from instructions I found online. It works!

Truly marvelous! Good looking, and it looks like it's relatively bright.

[QUOTE=mkeller234;11704827]Inspired by the recent Raleigh lamp thread I found a NOS one on ebay.uk. Thanks to RHM for the suggestion of searching "Pifco". It takes an obsolete battery so I had to rig my own battery pack from instructions I found online. It works![quote]

Great pictures Matt, now tell us more about this battery pack you built!

So, it's not DIRECTLY English 3 speed related, but it does have Phillips content...I started a blog about my journeys hither and yon in Northern Indiana (or wherever the road might take me...Lake Pepin?).

So, it's not DIRECTLY English 3 speed related, but it does have Phillips content...I started a blog about my journeys hither and yon in Northern Indiana (or wherever the road might take me...Lake Pepin?).

lifeona3speed.blogspot.com

I enjoyed this read. I was thinking of doing the exact same thing, you beat me to it! I'll keep this in my favorites as I look forward to the next ride. Great stuff!

Oh, and I was born in W. Lafayette, IN, so the terrain is familiar. I can't believe all the leaves you have on the ground already...most of our trees haven't even turned colors yet!